About Howard Gleckman

Howard Gleckman writes about aging for Forbes, is author of the book "Caring for Our Parents (St. Martin's Press) and is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. Formerly a senior correspondent in the Washington bureau of Business Week, he writes and speaks on aging issues, as well as economic and fiscal policy.

Senior services will likely be under severe pressure in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. While it is impossible to know now which program budgets will be cut – or by how much – services funded through the Older Americans Act (OAA) such as Meals on Wheels, adult day care, and information assistance could all be targeted.

Significant changes to the Affordable Care Act could affect how care is delivered through Medicare and Medicaid. Those programs also could face even bigger changes, since Trump and House Republicans say they want to restructure both. The changes may increase out-of-pocket Medicare costs for seniors and limit the federal contribution to Medicaid. Continue reading →

A few quick thoughts on health reform and the election — we’ll be coming back to this, of course, as we learn more (and get more sleep!)

Republicans can’t just repeal the entire Affordable Care Act. Democrats will still have enough votes to filibuster – and they will.

That doesn’t mean President-elect Trump and the GOP majority can’t unravel a great deal of the law. They can – and that’s one reason Families USA and other advocacy groups went into emergency mode to figure out how to defend it. Continue reading →

About Pia Christensen

Pia Christensen (@AHCJ_Pia) is the managing editor/online services for AHCJ. She manages the content and development of healthjournalism.org, coordinates AHCJ's social media efforts and edits and manages production of association guides, programs and newsletters.

Covering Health will have more about the election of Donald J. Trump as U.S. president but we start with some links about Trump and his positions on health care, especially the Affordable Care Act, which he says he will repeal. Continue reading →

Bad debt? Or charity care? Sean Hamill of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently wrote an interesting story about how hospitals increasingly are re-categorizing the health care bills of low-income patients in a fashion that may be helping the hospital more than the patient.

Some angles in this story are especially timely as the 2017 Affordable Care Act enrollment season is about to begin. Continue reading →